VOA慢速英语2013 印尼儿童的出生证问题

 

AS IT IS - Getting a birth certificate in Indonesia can be an administrative¹ nightmare

印尼儿童的出生证问题

Hello again, and welcome to AS IT IS from VOA Learning English.

I’m June Simms in Washington.

Today, we celebrate the first graduating class of Liquidnet Family High School in Rwanda

And we travel to Indonesia. The country is home to millions of unregistered children. Today we hear how not having a birth certificate can have long lasting² effects.

Getting a birth certificate in Indonesia can be an administrative nightmare. It takes a lot of paperwork and is quite costly³. This is especially true for millions of people in the country’s poor and lower income communities. Without a birth certificate, the children are not able to get an education, or even basic healthcare. Jim Tedder⁴ reports.

After collecting plastic bottles and sorting through trash, 26-year-old Santi returns home to her small wooden shack⁵. Her son plays banjo on local buses for money. Together they make just enough to get by. Opportunities are few for people who live in this Jakarta slum. That is especially true for the children, many of whom do not officially exist.

Santi says she cannot afford to pay for birth certificates. But without them her children cannot go to school.

Santi’s children are among as many as 35 million children who activists⁶ estimate are unregistered.

Amrullah Sofyan is a project manager at Plan Indonesia, a child rights group that is working toward universal birth registration⁷.

“Birth registration is part of the first identity for the children to become citizens because it is linked with their other rights, like identity, nationality, a right to education, a right to health.”

Marriage registration, a passport and the right to vote are also out of reach without a birth certificate.

“It is a matter of citizenship⁸. They are citizens of this country. If we are only concerned with population administration, we will reject them and send them back to their village. We ask the government when they make a policy not to be blind to the people because it is a reality. Street children, marginalized children [are] a reality. The policy should be open.”

Last year, Plan Indonesia researched five slums in Jakarta. It found that more than 60 percent of the parents had never tried to register their children. Across Indonesia, the figures are even worse. Plan Indonesia estimates that as many as three million more children each year join the 30 to 35 million who are unregistered.

These are the sounds of lunchtime at an unofficial school for street children. Each day up to 30 children attend the basic lessons.

56-year-old Pipit established the school three years ago. She says the children are smart and deserve a chance.

The students even wrote a song about it.

It tells about their dreams of going to real school.

But for now, it’s street school or nothing. I’m Jim Tedder,

You are listening to AS IT IS on the Voice of America. I’m June Simms.

It’s been 19 years since the Rwandan genocide. Since then, much has been done to reunite and rebuild the country. But the work continues. It includes helping⁹ those who became orphans¹¹ during and after the mass killings¹².

More than 100 high school students at a youth village in Rwanda recently passed their national exams to graduate. They are all orphans and members of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. The name of the village is a combination of Kinyarwanda and Hebrew.

Agahozo means “where tears are dried.”  Shalom means “peace.”

Anne Heyman is the founder¹³.

“I actually was attending a lecture on genocide, and there was a speaker speaking about the Rwandan genocide. This is in the fall of 2005. And my husband asked him what was the biggest problem facing Rwanda today? And he said in a country where you have 1.2 million orphans, with a population of 8.5 million people, there really is no future for the country unless you come up with a sustainable solution to the orphan¹⁰ problem.”

Ann Heyman is a South African born lawyer, who now lives in New York City.

“It occurred to me that Israel had had anorphan problem after the Holocaust¹⁴, and they had come up with a system that reintegrated those kids into society, and they don’t have an orphan problem today. So there really is a systemic solution to dealing¹⁵ with the orphan problem.”

Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is about an hour’s drive east of Kigali. It is built on land that Heyman and supporters bought from local landowners.

“We have 500 kids in the village. Everyone gets the kind of support that you or I would give our biological children. Yes, they get food, clothing, shelter and all those things.” Mrs. Heyman says, as orphans, the kids have all experienced trauma¹⁶ in their lives.

“We focus on trying to heal their emotional scars; giving them a healthy outlook on life; helping them determine what they want to do with their futures¹⁷.”

Families are made up of 16 youth and each family is headed by a mom.

“Many of them, the vast majority of them, are women who lost their families during the genocide. And for them, too, the village is a very healing environment. They all say that they have found incredible meaning in their lives. And restoring the rhythm of life for these young kids has really been incredibly uplifting for them.”

There is also a high school in the village, where Mrs. Heyman says the children get a state-of-the-art education.

All but one of the 118 qualifying seniors passed Rwanda’s national exams a few months ago. It is the first graduating class of the Liquidnet Family High School.

Most of the village’s funding comes from donations and much time is spent trying to gain support. Ann Heyman hopes to one day turn Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village into a self-sufficient village, where small businesses can fund operations.

“If we can fix that last loop, making it self-sustaining in terms of income, then I think we have a tremendous model for development for the world.”

That’s AS IT IS for today. I’m June Simms. Thanks for sharing your day with us.

1 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

2 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

5 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

6 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

8 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

11 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

12 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

13 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

14 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

15 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

16 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

17 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。